Help Me
by finder77
Summary: Todd's booted from his home & ventures to good ol' number 777 for help. But Nny's gone! How could he abandon Todd? Squee finds there's more than he bargained for in house 777. ToddXOC Cara -OC- finds she left more than a few lost memories in her old town
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hey there, this is my first JTHM fic so... yep. The Points of View (or POV, for short) change every chapter. You can tell who is narrating it by the 'name' in bold. Please review when you're done. I need to know if you LIKE it!

**

* * *

Todd**

On the dawn of my eighteenth birthday, my father kicked me out of the house. I was surprised it lasted that long, actually, considering the fact that he'd always resented my existence.

My mother didn't do anything about it either. It made me sad that I'd half expected some maternal instinct to kick in at the last second. I should've known better. Neither of my parents ever loved me. I'd learned that time and time again.

So I really should've seen this coming… or at least had the experience to know they wouldn't be nice about it.

Sometimes I wonder why they bothered to have me in the first place. It's not like birth control is that expensive, anyway. It's incredibly cheap if you compare it to the price of raising a child.

Wow, one night of wearing a condom could've bought them eighteen extra years of happiness. I almost feel sorry… Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying sorry because of the… you know, _me_ factor… I meant more of the _holy shit, my parents were stupid_ factor.

And they really were.

"Not my problem anymore," was the last fragment of a sentence my father muttered to me before literally shoving me out the front door and slamming the door behind me.

My first action as a free man was to drop my hands into my pockets and inhale deeply. Because I was free, in a sense, just as free as my parents were. I was free from them and they were free from me.

I stepped off the family welcome mat, the one that had never held any sense of welcome in the first place, and onto the cement walkway that led off down the street.

I would go back later to get my things, of course, if I decided I wanted any of it. My parents had always avoided buying me things when they could.

But for now I had to figure out what I would do until then, when I would sneak back in through my window just as if I was…

Nny… That was perfect! I should've thought of that before… He lived right across the street. I was positive he wouldn't mind my company for a while.

I mean, Nny was always a little… _off_… But we're all a little off when we want to be, right? I wouldn't let the fact that Nny wasn't the most helpful of people get my hopes down. I thought I recalled him saving my life once. He couldn't be that bad.

And it wasn't like I had many others for a choice of where to stay. Pepito, the only guy I could ever have called a friend throughout my years at school, had moved away the year before. His father had to transfer cities because of his job or… something like that. Everything about Pepito had always been a little vague… a little scary.

Maybe everything in this town was just weird.

I looked out from under spikes of dark hair towards the dusty city skyline. The mauve light of early morning was turning the normally grey-toned buildings a weird rust color. I wondered whether that's where I would head next… after Nny's place.

Speaking of, the place seemed smaller than I remembered it. And it may have gone to shit even _further_ when I wasn't looking. I mean, I had never really been over here… Johnny's house was always really foreboding when I was younger. Even now, standing at his front door, occasionally ringing the bell, I was a little nervous.

But that may have just been the fact that he could reject me, just as both my parents had done.

I shivered in the cool morning air, pulling my black jacket tighter around me and continuing to buzz at Nny's door. The windows of the house were dirtied up with dust or something of the like, almost like the way stores cover their windows with soap when they close up for the season.

"Come on, Nny," I muttered quietly to myself. "Answer your door…" I rang the doorbell a few more times. I wondered if there was a limit to how many times one could ring someone's doorbell. Well… there was the off chance that it was broken.

I knocked loudly on the door which chose to issue a loud and hollow thud. I probably could've bashed the door open if I'd wanted to, it sounded so thin.

At the verge of giving up, I plainly reached for the handle, only to find it easy to turn, completely unlocked. I looked behind me. None of the neighbors were out on their lawns. It was too early, anyway. The only person who would venture out this early in the morning would be Mrs. Pauset, widow who lived up the street and walked all six of her cats at dawn every day.

So I was positive no one would notice me enter the house.

And I stepped inside.

I remember the disappointment that hit me was immense: The room was empty. I closed the door behind me quietly, sweeping my eyes through the front room. The light of daybreak settled through fine slats in one of the windows and came through gaping holes from the other two. My eyes adjusted quickly in the subtle light, and I groped for the light switch experimentally.

As the pale bulb flickered on, I stepped forward, realizing my boots were leaving shadowy footprints in the dust that had settled on the hardwood floor. I opened my mouth. The little furniture that had once taken up residence was gone, only shadows in the dust were left in their places.

"Johnny?" My voice was muted. He had to be here, he had to… He couldn't have left without saying goodbye! That was just _unlike_ him! He must be… He had to be playing a game with me. Hide-and-seek or something! And any moment he would pop out from behind some crazy cupboard or maybe a dresser with that crooked smile of his and say, _"Long time no see, Squee!"_

Hope blossomed in my chest as I thought of the possibility. It _might_ be true. No! I shook the thought away. _Don't tell yourself that!_ I told myself. After all, what if it _wasn't_?

I moved through the ranch-style home quickly, ripping open doors and running through small rooms; a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom. All of it was gone. All of my hope was gone.

"Nny!" my voice broke as I held back a sob. Memories of a childhood without help crawled through my brain. A childhood without anything… A childhood without—

I ripped open the last door.

That last, terrible door that should have perhaps stayed closed for all eternity. The secrets and haunts and mysteries it held weren't meant for me. Well, they weren't meant for _anybody_, but most certainly not me. I don't think… Johnny wouldn't have wished that upon anyone.

"Nny…" My eyes widened, searching the blackness. I inhaled… "Nny, are you down there?!" My voice was almost a holler. Probably the loudest I could be without screaming in terror. Because that was it: I was _terrified._

The silence that rose up to greet me from the basement's dark depths was no less than devastating.

I closed the door.

I turned around.

And I fell to the floor.

…

How could he?

* * *

AN: Review please. PLEASE. Jeez... I wrote it for you, now REVIEW!

_To my more dedicated watchers:_ Just so you know, my Naruto fanfics will probably be on hiatus indefinitely. I had been working on updating Carved but that basically involved revamping the story which I just DON'T have time for right now. Also, check me out on my fictionpress account: /u/523220/ It's under Finder77, too. I've got _After Jack_ and _Virza_ going, and those are both pretty boss.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I would just like to remind y'all that the POV changes from chapter to chapter. Last chapter was Todd/Squee's POV. This chapter is narrated by Cara. She's a female OC and about 17 but you'll find out about her by reading. Don't worry, just 'cause she's an OC doesn't mean she's not interesting. ALSO, Todd does appear in this chapter. :) Another BTW... This chapter takes place about seven years after the last one. They WILL catch up to each other by chapter four, I believe.**

**Also, I wanted to thank my reviewers for the DELICIOUS reviews that they left me. :3 I love you guys.**

* * *

**Cara**

It was quite a long time since I'd been home. The sky looked different than I remembered it. Weren't skies supposed to be blue? The bits and pieces that showed through my sunroof were lavender and grey. Clouds of pollutants from the local city, I suppose. Everything was dirty here. I could see it with my eyes that had become so adjusted to clean. I knew that after a week or so they would readjust, though, and the filth would become home again, just as it had always been when I was a child.

I coughed weakly from the backseat of the car. "I-it's up to the left, Sir!" My voice stammered.

Though the driver of the car made no sound, he nodded in recognition of my voice. He was a good driver, but certainly not a very friendly one.

I coughed harshly again and closed my eyes warily for a moment. Maybe the pollution I'd been sent to escape from was catching up with me…? I was gone for so long; I hadn't even realized how much cleaner the air was at my boarding school.

Ah, Seraphim Summers Institute: the most wonderful learning center the world must have to offer… _not_ I smiled to myself at the internal sarcasm. The SSI was… clean, but certainly not welcoming. The bleak marble halls and irritable staff were, to lightly put it, harsh.

But besides the clean air, there was another good thing about the Seraphim Summers Institute. The library was full of books, tomes and volumes of notable intelligence that stacked up and down countless shelves, so even someone like me who couldn't get out much, was able to learn about the world.

During my time away, I studied History, Arithmetic, Science, and more. I learned a lot of things, to put it bluntly. Most of which I'm quite sure will never be put to good use. I don't see myself ever becoming some sort of accountant or a CEO of a major company. And I probably wouldn't be very good for teaching, you see. I'm very forgetful, myself.

When I was younger, still a child, something went very, very wrong. And whatever happened made me start to forget things: Lots of things.

It started off slowly. After the accident, which I had to be filled in on considering I couldn't remember it, I started to forget. At first it was just little things. I would forget that I had homework, or that someone's birthday was coming up. Tiny, insignificant-seeming things left me. After a while, though, my mother became worried.

I remember only once…

She had appeared at the top of the stairs, peering down at me. I stood looking through the glass of a window, trying to remember what I was doing. "Cara?" she started anxiously. "Weren't you going to your friend's house tonight?"

I turned to her, "Hmm?" I didn't remember that.

My mother bit down on her lip. "You said yesterday that Emily had asked for you to sleepover."

"I did?"

"Yes!" a note of panic, then.

I must have been seven, or eight, maybe. I gripped the hem of my dress nervously. "What time did I say?" I asked.

"Six-thirty," she murmured. I looked at the clock and it was seven.

"Should I go?" I asked quietly.

"Probably, won't Emily be worried about you?"

"I don't know…" I was trying to picture this girl in my head, but time and again my memories failed me. "Where does Emily live?"

My mother chose then to come down the stairs. "Cara, you walk home with her every day after school. You know where she lives."

I shook my head. "I can't remember."

Mother raised an eyebrow. "That's not funny, Cara," but her tone was unsure. "You do remember."

"No, mommy, I don't!"

"Why don't you?!"

My voiced hitched on a sob, "I don't know!"

-o-

And after that… it only got worse. I forgot where _I_ lived; who _I_ was. One day after school when I still went to public school, I stopped outside of the front steps; unsure of which way was home. I couldn't make up my mind. Left, right, straight? Did I even _have_ a home? I couldn't remember and I was scared. I didn't move from the font of the school until my mother finally came to pick me up, unbelievably relieved that she'd found me, an hour later.

-o-

But my mother knew there was something incredibly wrong at that point. "Cara," she said quietly, as rain pelted the windshield and she watched the cars come and go. "I think we need to see someone about this."

I was quiet. I didn't know who this someone was, but I didn't think it sounded like a good idea. Even so, I didn't protest. I didn't want to make matters worse.

And ten minutes later we were there, at the shiny chrome main-entrance of the city's hospital. My mother took me in to the ER and told everyone she saw that is was really important; that there was something wrong with her daughter.

She whispered and muttered of course, not saying those words in front of _me_, but I could still hear her. She must've been in a real hurry.

And so began the many interrogations and examinations. The doctors wanted to know when it started, what had happened, what the symptoms were. They tested me and took x-ray pictures of my brain, hoping to find an abnormality.

But they found nothing.

They said I was a rarity. I had a disease no one had ever contracted. Some of the doctors even seemed happy about it. They figured the discovery could make them big-shots in the medical world.

They called my condition Amnesia-X.

-o-

And since then, my family sent me to Seraphim Summers Institute, where _other_ people would take care of me. That was fine with me. I wouldn't have wanted to be a burden to them.

-o-

I leaned drearily towards the window. It was beginning to rain. The water splattered down onto the car as the sky began to darken. As my driver turned down the old paved road that led to my childhood home, I watched the houses pass me by. And when I saw house number 777, I remembered something. If I'd known then what would happen… it might have been better if I hadn't remembered.

The memory was almost lucid as it formed in my mind… But the idea of it was outrageous! At first I questioned whether it had ever happened to begin with. But it was so vivid… so much clearer than the other memories I had brought back from the void. It was too real to be anything less than a memory. It had to be real!

I went over the memory again in my head. The day it happened on must have been fairly normal, because I didn't remember anything about it. But I remembered the night, clear as a bell, just as I did recall the man behind the night…

I don't know how I could've ever forgotten the memory of him. And I couldn't comprehend why _now_ of all times I remembered this… I must've been only ten or eleven when he first visited me.

Though it may sound silly, it was well past my bedtime. As I was pulled from my sleep by his light maneuver through my open window—as if he'd done it a thousand times—thoughts of the boogeyman ran through my head, scaring me stiff. Of course, I was still a small child with a large imagination. I wanted to cry out, scream to alert my parents of this intruder, but my mouth opened in only silence as he stepped into a shaft of moonlight that illuminated his features.

His voice was slightly gruff with an edge of worry. "Please don't make me go," he begged, his dark eyes locked on me. "I only wanted some company."

I hesitated. He seemed only a few years older than me. "Who are you?" I asked, curiosity conquering my fear for the moment.

"Todd," he whispered, a small smile of relief forming on his face. I wouldn't involve my parents and he knew it. "I live across the street." His eyes darted unconsciously out the window he'd come in from, towards house number 777. "It gets lonely over there." He said the next part more to himself. "It almost makes sense how crazy Nny was."

I coughed once and chose to reply with an inquiry. "Who's Nny?"

"Just a friend," Todd said, "Used to live over at 777, back when I still lived here." He gestured around the room that I then called my own.

"You live—" I coughed harshly several times, the spasms rocking through my frail body. "You lived here?" I finished.

Todd's head cocked to the side. "Once," he replied. "Do you have a cold or something?"

I laughed. _If only._ "I'd be lucky if I just had a cold…" I trailed off coughing again. Then I tried to explain my illnesses as well as I could. "It's… it's kinda a forever thing. We can't figure out what's doing it. They say it might be from my heart."

-o-

Of course, back then I hadn't figured out that the coughing was _mostly _caused by the pollution here. The only thought the doctors had at the time was that it might be from the heart troubles I'd been having. They were so worthless… they never figured out what caused my weak heart.

I was never allowed to do sports in school. I had a doctor's note and consistently failed my physical education classes. I was glad I'd never really had time to develop an appreciation for a sport. That could've crushed me.

-o-

But I continued my explanation, throwing Amnesia-X into the factor as well. "There's more," I said, holding up a hand at Todd's wide-eyed expression. "I forget things: Lots of things. Sometimes I forget who I am…" I looked at him. "So if I don't remember you… don't be upset with me, please." His face was in shadow now, but his bowed head seemed sad to me.

I fidgeted uncomfortably, wondering if I'd hurt his feelings. "Todd?"

He looked up. "I never asked you _your_ name," he said quietly.

I blinked. "Cara." I was embarrassed for not having introduced myself.

He half-smiled, "I'll be sure not to forget."

"Sorry." I frowned. It wasn't _my_ fault I forgot things.

Suddenly, three things happened at once.

Firstly, as if sensing the sequence before it happened, Todd disappeared under my bed.

Before I could ask him what was going on, my door began to creak open, my mother behind it and whispering, "Cara, are you awake?!"

Before she had her head around the door to check on me, my head had already slammed into my pillow, instantly feigning sleep.

I heard her breathing there, a few paces away. I held as still as I could, breathing gently to ward off her suspicions. It was another minute before she finally walked out of the room and back down the hallway.

I sat up, completely silent. I could hear my heart beating fast under my ribcage from the scare of it. The quickness made me dizzy. I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Todd?" I whispered.

"Still here," he answered just as quietly. In one fluid motion he was out from under my bed.

"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked, bewildered.

He seemed confused. "What?"

"The bed thing," I pointed to the end of my bed which he'd slipped under and reappeared out of.

"Oh. I think it just came to me." He contemplated this information for a second. "But Nny… He used to do a lot of stuff like that." He looked concerned at this. "I watched him do stuff like that a couple of times. Maybe I subconsciously learned it from him." He shrugged.

"Anyway," Todd said, stepping towards the window, "I'd better go before your mom gets back. She seemed nice." He smiled, trying to hide his jealousy.

"Alright," I agreed. "Maybe… some other time we'll see each other? Preferably not so late at night…"

Todd's mouth compressed to a thin line. It made him look stern. "We will," he turned once more to look at me before jumping out my window. "I'm sure of it."

And that was the last I ever saw of him... Or was it?

* * *

**AN: Review Please. :3 And add this to your story alerts for future updates.**


End file.
